Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean were running fourth and fifth respectively at Albert Park, putting Haas on course to score their best-ever result since joining the F1 fray in 2016.

However, in a catastrophic few moments for the American team, both cars retired on the lap following their respective pit stops, losing them a potential 22 points, which is just shy of half their entire tally in 2017.

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner said the wheel nuts were cross-threaded on both cars, meaning the tyre wasn’t fixed correctly before each departed their pit box.

Carlos Sainz admitted he was out of his comfort zone for much of the Australian Grand Prix – but it had nothing to do with the performance of his Renault.


The young Spaniard held on to seal a single point at Albert Park, but 10th place still constituted his worst-ever Australian Grand Prix finish. And he later revealed that stomach problems had almost caused him to abandon.

“At one point under the safety car, I nearly had to vomit,” he said, adding: “from that point it was just a case of making it to the finish.”

Sainz explained that his problems were largely self-inflicted, caused by taking on too much fluid during the race.

“I had a drinks bottle pumping water since lap one and unconsciously I was drinking and drinking and drinking. Suddenly I just felt full of water in my stomach and I wasn’t feeling good,” he said.

“Going from side to side it was very difficult and at one point under the safety car I nearly had to vomit, so it was a difficult race in general. It’s unfortunate, but I just need to learn from it.”

Sainz, however, said he was happy with the performance of the car over the first weekend of the new season, as Renault scored points with both cars for the first time since the 2011 Turkish Grand Prix, thanks to team mate Nico Hulkenberg taking seventh place for six points.

“It was a positive start (for the team) and I’m happy with the performance for all of the weekend,” he continued, but added: “I think I could have done much more without the (stomach) problems and with better car handling in the first stint. But it’s something to learn from and we will get better.”

What’s next?

The teams and drivers have a short break before round two of the championship, which takes place in Sakhir, Bahrain from Friday 6 – Sunday 8 April.

Sebastian Vettel admitted that a chaotic mid-race coupled with a timely Safety Car was the key to Ferrari’s Melbourne victory, as he took advantage to snatch victory from Lewis Hamilton.


Vettel, chasing a fifth world title, ran third behind reigning champion Lewis Hamilton and team mate Kimi Raikkonen in the early part of the race.


No doubt Lewis was faster in the first stint and he was fast again in the second stint.Sebastian Vettel


But when the wheels came off for Haas with two botched pit stops in the space of two laps, Ferrari took advantage of the resulting Virtual Safety Car scenario - and an apparent Mercedes software glitch - to pit Vettel and bring him back out in front of Hamilton.

“We got a bit lucky with the timing of the Safety Car and obviously that was the key to our win,” Vettel said. But he added: “We had other races last year where it went the other way. It worked for us this time."

Sunday's victory followed a spiky post-qualifying press conference in which Vettel had told Hamilton: "what goes around comes around" after the Briton had taken pole with a blistering final qualifying lap.

Hamilton had taunted his rival by claiming: "I was waiting to put a good lap in. To wipe the smile off your face", prompting Vettel to declare: "He's free to have a party tonight - hopefully we'll have the party tomorrow."

It was a throwaway line that proved prophetic, as Vettel triumphed on Sunday despite conceding that Hamilton had the faster car.

“No doubt Lewis was faster in the first stint and he was fast again in the second stint. I was hoping for better from my start and I struggled a bit in the first part of the race where I had to let them both go a little bit – that wasn’t planned!

“I was praying for the safety car. When I saw a Haas had stopped in the exit of Turn 2 I was full of adrenalin - even though the race was frozen - to come into the pits with everything on the limit and race to get back out.

“They told me it was really close with Lewis and when I got out ahead I knew it would be difficult for him to pass. On the soft tyres, I felt happier with the car and was able to control things as Lewis did his utmost to keep pressure up.

“He never really got close enough to try and do anything and it’s not the easiest track to pass on – again, I’ve been on the other side of that in other years, but this year it worked in our favour and I’m very happy for the team.

“We are not yet where we want to be, but this result gives us a good start and a good team result, so for everyone back home it gives is the motivation to press on.”

Vettel's victory in Australia was his second in a row in the country, the German having defeated Hamilton from second on the grid last year. It means he leads the world title for the first time since last year's Belgian Grand Prix.

A software glitch. That’s what Mercedes say cost Lewis Hamilton victory - and allowed arch rival Sebastian Vettel to capitalise - in the season-opening race in Australia.


Having led away from pole at the start and controlled the opening stages of the race, Hamilton was all set to re-inherit the lead from Sebastian Vettel during the pit stop sequence when the Virtual Safety Car [VSC] was deployed to deal with Romain Grosjean’s stricken Haas.


Lewis did nothing wrong - it was down to a software bug or an algorithm that was simply wrong Toto Wolff


It was at that point that the race was turned on its head as Vettel – much to Hamilton’s frustration and bemusement – was able to pit and re-join ahead of the Briton.

The world champion immediately asked his team if he had made a mistake by not hitting the target lap time Mercedes had given him. But Silver Arrows chief Toto Wolff later admitted the software the team has used for five years to simulate such scenarios had generated the incorrect figures, consigning Hamilton to a second-place finish behind Vettel’s Ferrari.

“We were trying to build enough of a gap to [Kimi] Raikkonen to avoid the undercut and we were trying to have enough gap to the Haas to have the Safety Car gap,” explained Wolff.

“Everything was under control. We took a bit of a risk of putting Lewis on a soft [tyre] to go to the end, but it was the only choice to avoid Kimi jumping us. The pace was good.

“Then we calculated the VSC gap which was needed [if one was activated]. Our computer said 15 seconds was the necessary time in order to jump us.

“The drivers oscillate within one second in the delta. Then suddenly the cameras showed us the pit exit. Sebastian came out in front of us. The software or system we have been using for five years just gave us the wrong number.

“Lewis did nothing wrong. It was down to a software bug or an algorithm that was simply wrong.”

Wolff said he felt Mercedes would have been able to make the required gap to cover off a Virtual Safety Car period had the software generated the right data.

“Lewis knew that he needed to make it to the end on the tyre and drove to the target and without that [glitch] we probably would have had the gap,” he said. “The only thing we could have done was try to push more after his pit stop and try to create a bigger gap.

“But knowing that the tyre needed to go another 40 laps or so it was very important not to stretch that too much and he was going quicker than Sebastian anyway. So the gap grew.

“And we knew that the gap was good enough that even under VSC we would still maintain the lead.

“If we knew it would have been three of four seconds more we would have pushed a bit more with the tyres with the risk at the end of the race - but we would have done it.

Despite losing out, Wolff said he had no frustrations with the way the VSC rules are applied.

“I think, like always in motor racing, with the VSC or normal Safety Car, sometimes you are lucky and sometimes it bites you. Today we were bitten. It’s very hard to take because we had the pace and for whatever reason – we need to find out – we lost the win.

"You know it’s these moments that make you stronger,” he added philosophically. “We got punched in the face today and we got punched in the face yesterday [with Valtteri Bottas’s crash], against everyone saying that we would run away easily with 20 victories or whatever. I always said that wouldn’t be the case – it is very close at the top and I guess that’s the message that everyone will want to here.”

Vettel's win meant it was the fourth time in five years that Hamilton has failed to convert pole to victory in Melbourne.

POZ.	BR.	Vozač	Momčad	Krug	Vrijeme	BOD.
1	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	58	1:29:33.283	25
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	58	+5.036s	18
3	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	58	+6.309s	15
4	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer	58	+7.069s	12
5	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren Renault	58	+27.886s	10
6	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer	58	+28.945s	8
7	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	58	+32.671s	6
8	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	58	+34.339s	4
9	2	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren Renault	58	+34.921s	2
10	55	Carlos Sainz	Renault	58	+45.722s	1
11	11	Sergio Perez	Force India Mercedes	58	+46.817s	0
12	31	Esteban Ocon	Force India Mercedes	58	+60.278s	0
13	16	Charles Leclerc	Sauber Ferrari	58	+75.759s	0
14	18	Lance Stroll	Williams Mercedes	58	+78.288s	0
15	28	Brendon Hartley	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda	57	+1 lap	0
NC	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas Ferrari	24	DNF	0
NC	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas Ferrari	22	DNF	0
NC	10	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda	13	DNF	0
NC	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber Ferrari	5	DNF	0
NC	35	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams Mercedes	4	DNF	0